All roads lead to the sunny South East this month for one of the country’s longest running community food festivals. The scenic harbour town of Dungarvan serves as the main hub for the three-day festival, with events also taking place in nearby Lismore, Villierstown, Kilmeaden, Cappoquin and Ardmore.
Inspired by the theme of ‘Connecting People with Food’, highlights from this year’s Waterford Festival of Food programme include guided taste tours, foraging trails, and sustainability workshops. In particular, this year’s happenings include a strong emphasis on avoiding food waste. Speaking about this year’s event, Festival Director Eunice Power says, “The Waterford Festival of Food is a showcase of local and regional food and culinary talent, so that dovetails into reduced food miles, field to fork eating and a supply chain that aims to link the producer and consumer more directly”.
With the focus on all things sustainable, Power has put together a fine array of live cooking demos and dining events hosted by guest chefs including Ali Honour and Sean Smith, including a Zero waste ‘Root To Tip’ dinner hosted by Chef and author Conor Spacey.
This year also sees the banning of single use cups from the festival market for the first time. Instead, visitors will have the option to either bring their own to go cup or use the deposit and return scheme from 2GoCup.
In addition, visitors can look forward to checking out the artisan wares at the festival’s famous outdoor market which takes place in the town’s Market Square on the final day. It features delicious fare from renowned local producers such as Clotilde Kierly from the sustainable Comeragh Mountain Farm and Willie Drohan of Comeragh Mountain Lamb, while the weekend also offers plenty of opportunities for city slickers to learn more about the ancient art of shepherding, in the company of Willie as part of a specially guided tour in the Comeraghs.
With such a packed programme, pre-booking is highly recommended. For the full programme and tickets, see waterfordfestivaloffood.com
Friday April 19th to Sunday April 21st.
Words: Martina Murray
